'Net Features : groupon

Is Wishpond Group Offer App a Groupon Killer?

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:15:00 GMT

Social media marketing platform Wishpond recently released a Group Offer app, allowing retailers to create "group deals" without resorting to the use of third-party deal platforms like Groupon.

The app essentially provides group-buying functionality without the middleman. Existing customers are encouraged to invite their friends to purchase in order to reach the specificed number of participants necessary to unlock the offer/deal.

The Wishpond group-buying app has several important features. Users can purchase with their PayPal credentials on the website or in-store, coupon codes are available (almost necessary to cut down on fraud), built in share buttons to extend offer reach, and Facebook integration (users can even set up a “Like-gate” to grow their fans on Facebook).

Wishpond’s Social Marketing Suite also features several other marketing apps including contest apps for running sweepstakes, Pinterest contests and a whole lot more worth exploring. The product seems to be priced reasonably – the basic offering is $19/mo. And a more design-friendly (CSS customization) and socially-progressive (the Like Gating) version is $45/mo. Agencies looking to white label (no Wishpond branding) the Wishpond app will spend $96/mo.

What most enterprises (retailers, restaurantuers) quickly found about daily deal promotions through services like Groupon was that one of the big advantages of using Groupon was the exposure to a new audience - which is eliminated when you go it alone with an app like that of Wishpond. While the app isn’t right for digital enterprise that are just getting started, those with an large and active audience could stand to benefit greatly.

Groupon Offers Merchant Impact Reports

Allison Howen — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:30:00 GMT

Groupon has launched a new tool to help merchants measure the performance of their daily deals.

The Merchant Impact Report is a free feature built into the Groupon Merchant Center that provides users with data that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of Groupon promotions. After a successful trial of the tool, the Merchant Impact Report is now available for U.S. and Canadian merchants who have a Groupon Merchant account. Check out some of the capabilities of the new tool below:

Marketing Analytics – Reveals the total number of Groupon subscribers who received a deal via Groupon as well as analytics on which subscribers purchase the offer. These analytics are also broken down by geography, gender and age.

Customer Insights – Shows the percentage of customers new to a business or reactivated as a result of working with Groupon. Additionally, merchants can view the estimated percentage of customers who are expected to return within 90 days.

Profit Calculator – Helps merchants estimate the cost-effectiveness of each promotion, including payments from Groupon, overspend above the value of the Groupon, revenue generated by returning customers and the merchants’ costs.

“The Merchant Impact Report was created as a result of our merchants’ feedback and is designed to provide a clear, concise view into the effectiveness of their Groupon promotions,” said Amit Koren, director of merchant products, Groupon. “Until today only the largest companies had access to this kind of information, and now we’re providing these powerful analytics to every local business that works with Groupon.”

10 Gallantly Green Websites to Envy

Amberly Dressler — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:30:00 GMT

Color usage plays a tremendous role in a website’s ability to evoke emotion and ultimately action from its audience. People tend to gravitate toward blue and green as their favorite colors, but it’s the meanings behind colors that designers must recognize when choosing a color scheme.

For example, what’s the first word that comes to mind when you think of the color green? For most it’s money. Others relate sustainability, health and safety to the color. Companies in all industries utilize green to communicate their brand’s message. Here are 10 gallantly green websites to envy.

1. 3 Sided Cube

2. The Green House

3. Evernote

4. Amy's

5. Zendesk

6. SproutBox

7. Sprout Social

8. Nature Valley

9. Go Glamping

10. The Holiday Inn

What Small Biz Can Learn from Big Biz

Amberly Dressler — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:15:00 GMT

And how big businesses learned from them.

Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is Small Business Saturday, a day dedicated to supporting small businesses nationwide, and the brainchild of American Express. Aside from all-important holiday revenue, participating small, local businesses have much to gain in the way of digital growth.

This is because American Express provides participating businesses with free online marketing materials, such as digital banners to place on their websites promoting their participation. Small business owners also receive sample tweets, Facebook posts and emails to use. By utilizing and understanding the importance of these resources, as well as taking a look at how big businesses use them every day, small businesses can truly establish or grow their Internet presence.

And, although it’s estimated that more than 50 percent of small businesses are operating without a website, the following tips on what small businesses can learn from big businesses, is made with the assumption our readers are also website owners or workers.

Social Media

For many small business owners, it may seem like an uphill battle to participate (let alone compete) in the digital realm. Their worries, however, don’t diminish the importance of doing so. Consumers, especially young ones, want a best-in-class experience at all times – across all channels (e.g. mobile, social, website, in-store). And, there is no better way to begin meeting their demands than through social media.

Example: Nordstrom’s number one goal has always, and always will be, to improve its customer service. And, the 100-year-old-plus company looks at its social media pages as an extension of its customer service. Jamie Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Direct, even said that at one point the company’s Twitter account was shut down due to sending out too many tweets answering customer’s questions.

“The customer is completely in control,” said Nordstrom. “The retailers who are embracing that are going to thrive.”

Additionally, Nordstrom has stern and even out-of-the-box social networking guidelines for its employees. Among the latter is “be humble.”

“Our number-one goal is to offer each customer great service, but we're certainly not perfect and we do make mistakes. Let's stay focused on working to deliver great service instead of bragging about it.”

Lesson Learned: Small businesses should heed Nordstrom’s example, as it is not enough to create social media pages and post about company-related topics, but it also important to actively respond to customers. Additionally, small businesses should set its social media guidelines to include ones that are in-line with company goals and ethos. Don’t type something on a social media page that you wouldn’t say directly to a consumer, in-store. A business’s customer service hat should never come off, even in the comfort of the digital space.

Online Advertising

Eighty-five percent of consumers search online for local businesses, according to Local Consumer Review Survey (2012). That said, business owners not advertising online and employing SEO tactics are also not raising awareness about their business, they are not encouraging repeat visit and they are not generating sales (or conversions). They are also likely losing out to their competitors, as according to e-Marketer.com, next year’s spending predictions include a $7 billion increase in online ad spending. But, even those who are spending the most can still struggle.

Example: SEMrush estimates Groupon’s search engine traffic (the cost of purchasing the same number of visitors through ads) as $1,014,508. Clearly, Groupon makes significant investments to acquire subscribers through online marketing initiatives, such as search engine marketing, display advertisements, referral programs and affiliate marketing. But while this may have worked for the company’s original goals, which was to acquire new subscribers, the company now has to leverage different promotions (e.g. discount codes) to achieve its current goal, which is to activate subscribers (get those who have subscribed to actually purchase). Groupon, however, doesn’t go at their online advertising alone. According to BuiltWith.com, Groupon uses Google’s DoubleClick.net for online advertising assistance.

Lesson Learned: In the virtual world, businesses (of all sizes) have to be flexible with strategies and goals. Being open to change, as well as virtually asking for help, by employing agencies or seasoned professionals, can improve the bottom line and improve a customer’s experience.

Email

The long-standing relationships that many small business owners are able to create and sustain with their customers are only in the dreams of many large enterprises. The former’s face-to-face interactions, not only give consumers a face, but merchants are also on hand to customize their customer service approach and promotions to them. However, many small businesses are missing out on using that information for future communications, such as email.

Example: UGG Australia uses a combination of marketing emails with a segmentation strategy based on interest, triggered actions and personalized communication based on browsing behavior. In order to ensure all of its email communication with the consumer is effective, the company leverages consumer data, sales trends and product interaction to reach a positive return on investment. Additionally, the majority of its email communications goes through a third-party email service provider, Silverpop. The company also leverages Demandware’s native functionality for transactional and back-in-stock emails. Its personalized email communication comes from integration with MyBuys.

Lesson Learned: Again we see that third-party providers increasing a company’s digital prowess and improve customer experience. There are plenty of available email marketing solutions that can help small businesses. For 50 of them, visit Website Magazine’s 50 Top Email Marketing Service Providers article.

The true lesson learned for any business – both small and large – is to put customers/clients first. And, while small, local businesses don’t often (if ever) make news for quality customer relations, it is to them large, digitally responsible companies turn to and try to emulate. We see that through Nordstrom’s use of social media, Groupon’s online advertising and UGG Australia’s email practices. Let us not forget who is driving our success, and ask for help when needed. Innovation is happening all around us and plenty of digital companies – covered every day at WebsiteMagazine.com - can accelerate digital growth.

And as a final note for small businesses looking to reap benefits of Small Business Saturday, look at how American Express uses the same design elements, logos, banner ads, etc., in all the event’s marketing collateral and try to emulate a streamlined experience of your own, long after Small Business Saturday closes.

Say Hello to the New eBay

Allison Howen — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:43:00 GMT

eBay has released a series of design and general experience updates intended to improve user engagement and also compete with the popular daily deal site, Groupon.

The changes include a site redesign, a new daily deal section and a tool that will help one of eBay's largest customer segments – collectors. Learn more about the updates below:

eBay Feeds

It seems as though eBay is embracing change, because the company’s recently updated logo is now accompanied by a redesigned website. The most prominent site change is the eBay Feed, which is a personalized page of items that are displayed in a Pinterest-style layout of image tiles. The Feeds are completely customizable, with the displayed products being tailored to the categories or items that users choose to follow. It is safe to say that the new image-oriented design focuses on usability, because it provides users with a simple way to quickly discover new products.

Lifestyle Deals

While the eBay Feeds take a page out of Pinterest's design handbook, the auction site’s new daily deal feature takes a page out of Groupon's business model. The new service, which is called Lifestyle Deals, currently runs offers in a limited number of cities, including New York, Chicago and San Francisco. The deals are arranged through a partnership with a company called Signpost, which assembles deals with local merchants and posts them online. In the past, eBay has focused on offering deals for products, so jumping into the deal industry with a focus on services is definitely a big step for the company.

Setify

Aside from the new site design and daily deal venture, eBay has also launched a new tool that focuses on helping one of the company’s most popular customer segments – collectors. To many people, collecting is more than just a hobby. However, the collection process can be very time consuming because it requires a lot of research, tracking and even at times, some networking. This is why eBay has made the collection process a little easier with the launch of a free tool called Setify. Currently in beta, Setisfy helps collectors track the items that they own, share their collections, build wish lists and shop for additional collectibles. Although Setify currently only supports comic book and coin collectors, support for more categories is expected to come in the future. Those who are interested can request a beta invitation here.

Groupon Lands a Savory Platform

Allison Howen — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:45:00 GMT

Groupon is sinking its teeth into the restaurant industry with its recent acquisition of Savored, which is a platform that enables diners to make free online reservations and pay lower prices at restaurants across the United States.

After booking a reservation with Savored and visiting the restaurant, diners receive up to a 40 percent discount applied automatically to their bill. However, the service is also beneficial to merchants, because they are provided with increased revenue for tables that would otherwise be empty. To date, more than 1,000 restaurants nationwide have used Savored’s platform for yield management.

“Savored’s platform nicely complements Groupon’s efforts in yield management, an area we’ve pioneered with Groupon Now!,” said Dan Roarty, VP of Groupon Now. “We look forward to working together to achieve a common goal - making dining out even more fun and affordable for consumers while helping restaurateurs manage inventory and grow their businesses.”

Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, it is important to note that Savored is currently continuing its service for diners and restaurants, and interested merchants can learn more about participating in Savored’s free 30-day trial here.

So Long, Groupon?

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Are we done with daily deals (yet)? According to data from competitive intelligence provider eDataSource, it certainly appears so, as they released a report which indicated a significant drop (20 percent) in sales and an increase in the rate of refunds.

The eDataSource report reveals that July sales declined in both monetary volume and number of units compared to May and June. The good news is that the average deal price held steady in a range of $30 to $32 during the May to July period. That's good for users of the site and Groupon itself.

"Groupon took the retail world by storm but has had a tough year as a public company," said John Latona, head of eDataSource's ecommerce intelligence service, “our report helps people who are following Groupon understand what is happening now."

It's important to note that that the eDataSource report focused exclusively on U.S. sales. Groupon however has a rather extensive International presence.

Groupon Launches New Loyalty Program

Allison Howen — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:15:00 GMT

Groupon is on the search for loyal customers.

The once-upon-a-time daily deals giant has launched Groupon Rewards, which is a loyalty program that tracks consumers’ purchases through their Groupon-saved credit or debit card, in order to reward them when they reach a certain amount at a participating retailers’ venue.

Merchants can become a “participating retailer” for free by signing up on Groupon’s website. With Groupon Rewards, merchants have the ability to create their own spending requirements and rewards to compensate their most loyal customers without punchcards or check-ins. The platform also gives merchants access to valuable insights into their customers’ spending activity.

Loyalty programs are an effective way to maintain a business’ customer base and increase conversions, brand loyalty and brand advocates. However, with the popularity of social media and mobile devices, it is interesting that Groupon would emphasize the fact that merchants don’t have to deal with check-ins. Although monitoring such things can add to a business owner’s already busy work schedule, check-ins would provide small businesses and Groupon with additional word-of-mouth advertising – which could prove to be very valuable.

Watch the Groupon Rewards video below:

25 Percent of Daily Deal Buys on Mobile Devices

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT

The mobile market for daily deals is significant, according to information released today from market leader Groupon.

The daily deal powerhouse announced that one-quarter of all Groupon vouchers were purchased via a mobile device. Groupon also indicated that both consumer and merchant app usage was up significantly year-over-year – increasing by more than three times from the previous December to more than 9 million. What’s even more impressive is that more than 12,000 of its merchant partners used Groupon’s merchant mobile app to redeem vouchers and track purchases.

“Groupon continues to change the way people shop locally,” says Mihir Shah, VP of Mobile, Groupon. “As smartphone adoption increases and the capabilities of our mobile products evolve, we look forward to harnessing the power of mobile to make it even easier for merchants partners around the world to run and market their businesses effectively.”

ROI Transparency at Daily Deal Leader Groupon

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT

In an effort to counter some of the lingering questions about the efficacy of its program, daily deals powerhouse Groupon has released a new Online Merchant Center. The platform provides sellers access to a dashboard-style view of performance across feature deals running on Groupon Now! and Groupon Rewards.

The performance dashboard provides details on customer acquisition, incremental customer spending and ROI from Groupon marketing services. The Online Merchant Center also provides real-time customer feedback for tracking customer comments.

“Our merchants’ needs are evolving,” said Mihir Shah, Vice President of Product at Groupon. “More and more businesses are incorporating all three of Groupon’s core services – feature deals, Groupon Now! deals and Groupon Rewards – into their marketing mixes. Groupon’s new Merchant Center brings the ‘big picture’ to the forefront while delivering granular data for each Groupon service, as well as insight into how they’re performing with customers. It’s an easier way to evaluate the success of Groupon campaigns at multiple levels, which is critical for busy merchants.”

The Groupon Merchant Center is but one of several new product launched by Groupon including the free online scheduling tool Groupon Scheduler.

Groupon Facing Stiff Competition

Michael Garrity — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 21:00:00 GMT

E-commerce is a rough game, and that is a lesson that the Chicago-based daily deals website Groupon is learning first hand. Over the last two days, they've seen two of their primary competitors in the daily deals business partner with Internet powerhouses Google and Amazon, respectively.

The first big bombshell dropped on August 1, when Google announced that they had acquired Dealmap, a site that compiles local offers and then displays them for users on a Google-powered map. It's safe to assume, then, that this agreement will lead to deals being blended with the traditional Google Maps site in the near future. As many have noted, Google have a number of location services at the moment, but none of them really sync up to create a cohesive experience for users. The acquisition of Dealmap should help to expand on Google Offers, the company's current daily deal site, as they continue to expand their mobile and social platforms.

Interestingly, just last year Groupon rejected a $6 billion acquisition deal from Google.

It is also important to note that Groupon offers are actually among the many deals displayed on Dealmap.

As if that wasn't enough, just one day later Amazon came out with an announcement about Amazon Local, their own venture into the world of daily deals. And to add insult to injury, Amazon Local's initial rollout will take place in Groupon's hometown of Chicago.

LivingSocial, Groupon's closest competitor, has signed on to be the sales force behind merchant partnerships with the service. Though Amazon plans to eventually hire its own sales force, at the beginning they will outsource sales to help quickly get the project off the ground.

In December 2010, Amazon invested $175 million into LivingSocial, so by enlisting them as its sales force, they will begin to see some of that investment come back to them.

While Groupon has thus far been successful in thwarting the attempts of smaller start ups like LivingSocial, Gilt City, and Zozi, they will likely have their hands full with the onslaught of these existing large companies with a huge Web presence. Companies like Google and Amazon (or AT&T and American Express, who also expressed interest in pursuing daily deals programs) will have to pay far less than start ups for user acquisition, as the users already exist; it just becomes a matter of extending an offers channel within the site's existing framework.

What does this mean for Groupon, or more importantly, for future retailers who use their service? Only time will really tell, but it's certainly something many people are going to want to keep an eye on in the near future.

This Deals Startup Actually Has Game

Linc Wonham — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:00:00 GMT

A new company called Squarz says its goal is to change the way merchants view retail marketing and the way consumers view daily deals sites. Sound familiar?

Probably, with a new twist to daily deals cropping up almost every day now, but this one is legitimately twisted – not to mention highly innovative and equally intriguing.

Chicago-based Squarz merges savings, sweepstakes and sports into an opportunity for merchants to drive new customers to retail through compelling offers and valuable prizes. The patented technology allows Squarz to cut through an increasingly cluttered online savings environment with perhaps a stronger marketing message than the typical savings and deal sites.

Because consumers are engaged at more than just price point (Squarz also offers links to sports and big prizes), Squarz can offer opportunities to merchants that are more profitable in both the short and long term. And unlike other sites, it’s a win for both consumers and merchants.

When Squarz members purchase a deal, they also receive a 1-in-100 chance of winning a grand prize, typically offered by the same merchant. The winner of the prize is determined by a sports event, like in the traditional game of office squares. The patented Squarz Board is unique because the winner of each board is determined by the final score (or other pre-designated statistic), and uses a random generator to determine each square’s corresponding number prior to game start.

Each day Squarz showcases a variety of active deals that correspond to upcoming sporting events — there are grand prizes associated with each game.

“Squarz is a new take on retail marketing,” explains Chris Foufas, who founded Squarz. “The business model works to not only engage, incentivize and drive new customers, but can also be used to improve performance of existing customer databases with low click-through rates due to email fatigue. We’re working with local, regional and national merchants to develop win-win programs. Promotions that are profitable for our merchant partners and offer great prizes and create a fun experience that will return customers both to the Squarz site and to the retailer.”

Squarz is an example of the growing technology innovation culture being cultivated in Chicago, the most famous of its startups being the daily deals originator itself, Groupon. Lifelong Chicagoan and Squarz CEO Foufas has assembled a highly skilled team of professionals from technology, marketing and retail sectors including Squarz’s newly appointed CMO Joe Sciara, who has more than 20 years of experience in retail and sports marketing on a variety of national consumer brands.

Squarz has been in development for 18 months and is nearing the end of Beta testing, working primarily with Abt Electronics as a testing partner. Squarz is currently available only in Chicago with plans to expand to other major markets nationally over the next year.

LivingSocial Goes Global Overnight

Administrator — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Daily deals site and Groupon competitor LivingSocial announced the acquisition of several regionally focused daily deals sites around the world.

Living Social acquired Ensogo, one of the leading daily deals sites in Thailand and the Phillipines, DealKeren, an Ensogo company based in Indonesia, and GoNabit, which was one of the first daily deals sites in the Middle East. Living Social also introduced Daily Deals in the Netherlands.

The acquisitions and launch bring the total of countries/regions LivingSocial operates in to 21 and spanning six of the seven continents. The growth seemingly mimics the rapid growth of LivingSocial’s primary competitor in Groupon.

"As with previous acquisitions, LivingSocial has again chosen to align with local companies that possess similar values and ways of doing business," said Tim O'Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder, LivingSocial. "We are excited to enter the dynamic Asian market and our presence in the Middle East and the Netherlands further strengthens our strategic global efforts to bring LivingSocial values to members across the globe."

Today’s Daily Deals Explosion

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:48:00 GMT

It seems as if every time you turn around there is some new announcement in the hyper-local daily deals space. Groupon expanded its Groupon Now service to New York and San Francisco and partnered with Expedia to launch a travel deals site. Google announced last night that its Google Offers product will start today in Portland, Oregon (adding to a few other cities). And this is in the last two days. There’s more.

Group buying solution Tippr, which operates the white-label daily deal site PoweredByTippr, announced the acquisition of WhitePages’ social buying website, DealPop. Tippr immediately gains access to a national sales force and a technical team skilled in group buying infrastructures – both of extreme importance in the competitive daily deals business.

So here’s the question – are daily deals a saturated market? Is the only way to grow (Groupon expanded into over 400 cities in the past 12 months) by acquiring others? Are we entering an age of daily deals consolidation?

“Our growth will continue to be fueled by acquisitions as we look to consolidate our leadership position,” said Martin Tobias, CEO of Tippr. “We were the first company to deliver a complete white label platform for daily deals and we believe our publishing partners now reach a greater audience through the PoweredByTippr platform than all other white label platforms combined. We welcome the DealPop team to the Tippr family and are bullish on the impact this acquisition will have on our publisher’s business.”

LivingSocial Users Younger, Richer, Smarter than Groupon Users

Mike Phillips — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:45:00 GMT

Want to reach the young, smart and affluent with your daily deal offering? Then use LivingSocial instead of Groupon.

According to a survey* by Nielsen Co., LivingSocial buyers are 49 percent more likely than the average American to earn at least $150,000 -- compared to 30 percent for Groupon. LivingSocial users are also more likely to be under 35 years old than Groupon's audience. Also, LivingSocial's users are smarter -- 46 percent of them attended or graduated college, compared with 39 percent for Groupon.

This is a pretty interesting study and could be quite useful. Based on this, an upscale restaurant (should they even offer a deal), might find a better target audience on LivingSocial instead of Groupon, for example. In all, depending on the product or service offered and the intended audience, businesses might find success with a little targeting.

Of course, both LivingSocial and Groupon have bigger things to worry about right now -- the 800 lb. gorilla known as Facebook Daily Deals.

*Nielsen surveyed a panel of 200,000 Internet users.